"Citadel"

At first glance, Misa Nikolic's acrylic paintings at the Richmond Art Gallery appear to be photo-referenced hyper-realism. A closer look reveals that he has gone far beyond that hard-edge style popular in Vancouver in the 1960s and 1970s. To begin with, Nikolic's paintings of urban architecture exude devotion to the act of painting. Featuring sections of commercial buildings Edmonton and Vancouver in exquisite detail, the paintings are wonderfully well executed with flawless, slightly glossy surfaces and delicately delineated fields of colour. With every detail depicted in such clear focus, the viewer is invited to enjoy each lovingly reproduced brick, dentil, and molding.

The nine works that make up 500 Block move from one end of this Beatty Street block to the other in a panoramic sequence that further acknowledges the photographic origins of the images. The Sun Tower end of 500 Block is a flamboyant, faux-Baroque building with carved maidens, crenellations, and egregious but delightful ornamentation. The Stadium Skytrain station end is a dark, crabbed structure with all the fun taken out of function — a metaphor for the transition from previous less sophisticated but more demonstrative entrepreneurs to the current mean-spirited, cheeseparing corporate culture?

Finally, there are paintings within the paintings. Though the subject matter of the Architectonic series is commercial buildings that are steadfastly reproduced in all their stodgy charm, when it comes to windows Nikolic can't resist allowing himself to cut loose and hint at the broader range of his abilities. He uses light reflections in a wall of windows to create a subtly beautiful abstract composition in shades of blues, mauves, and purples. In another forbidding modern glass façade, the wavering reflection of an older architectural confection across the street becomes a loose and lovely impressionistic piece.

Though the paintings are labour-intensive and meticulously executed, Nikolic considers this body of work to be moving away from his earlier series that were freighted with self-imposed restrictions, such as working only in flat blocks of colour or in black and white. Within the current series there is a further progression toward a more unrestricted palette. His most recent works experiment with adventurous juxtapositions of colour. The Richmond Art Gallery exhibition also documents a change in his use of photographic references. Earlier works in this series are more faithful renditions, while later works are more committed to the process of painting, allowing freer interpretations and combinations of forms.

Nikolic exhibits masterful technique, as well as adroit manipulation of ideas and images. In the paintings within paintings he gives us an occasional glimpse of a playful, more visceral anima that, if given more expression, would provide additional dimension to his subject matter. Based on the trajectory of his work to date, he is an artist well worth watching.